the list of 9 for september 19, 2005:
NINE CELEBRITIES WHOSE LIVES WERE TOUCHED BY MURDER
This is a self-explanatory list with no real purpose except to compile some random trivia, bothwell-known and little-known. In this case, I'm excluding famous people who have been murdered(Phil Hartman, Sal Mineo, etc.), the well-known children of famous people who have been murdered(Sean Lennon, John F. Kennedy Jr., etc.) and, for the most part, famous people who themselves mayhave murdered (OJ Simpson, Phil Spector, etc.).
- Brad Silberling. Hollywood director (Lemony Snicket's ASeries of Unfortunate Events) lost his girlfriend, actress Rebecca Schaeffer, when she wasmurdered by a deranged fan in 1989. His film Moonlight Mile was inspired by his experiencesgetting over her passing, and in fact most of his movies, Hollywood product though they may be,deal directly with death.
- Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Radio talk show host, known forher blunt advice to screwed-up families as well as her strong right-wing politics, learned thather own estranged mother Yolanda, a recluse, had been murdered - after the woman's months-oldcorpse was discovered.
- Michael Jordan. The basketball icon's beloved fatherJames, who had recently appeared in an underwear commercial with his son, was murdered by carthieves while sleeping in his Lexus at a highway rest area.
- Bill Cosby. After getting a flat tire, Cosby's son Enniswas similarly murdered in an attempted robbery in Los Angeles by an unrepentant Russian.
- Kelsey Grammer. The "Frasier" star was visited by tragedy several times: his father was murdered in 1968, his sister raped and murdered in 1975. He also lost two half-brothers, who drowned while scuva diving, in 1980.
- Woody Harrelson. Grammer's erstwhile "Cheers" costar has aunique connection to murder: instead of losing a family member to it, his own father may havecommitted one. Charles Harrelson was apparently a professional hit man who had murdered a federaljudge in 1978. Though the family denies the crime, he is still serving a life sentence for it asof this writing.
- Venus & Serena Williams. In 2003, the tennis superstars'stepsister Yetunde Price was shot in the head, execution-style, in what was called a gang-relatedkilling.
- Roman Polanski. Living a life filled with more tragedythan even Kelsey Grammer's, Polanski not only lost his mother to Nazi concentration campatrocities, but it was the horrible death of his wife Sharon Tate and their unborn son at thehands of Charles Manson's followers that shocked the world in 1969.
- Robert Blake. I end this list with Blake for a specialreason. Not only because of the murder of his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, which he was charged with(and eventually acquitted of), but because the former child actor (he was one of "Our Gang") roseto prominence in the mid-60's with his performance as murderer Perry Edward Smith in the acclaimedfilm In Cold Blood. The murders on which In Cold Blood was based revitalized hiscareer, just as they did Truman Capote's - but I'll talk more about that in my next List of 9,which has a theme similar to this one.
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